blog@geibtechforlearning

http://bwroom109.net/
This website is a good example of a useful webpage I would borrow from which was done by a fellow teacher in my school district. I can find information that will help me manage my own district resources as they come about. Julia's webpage utilizes many resources for the various learning camps her website serves. She is a good role model for me as she works with a population of students and their families which is very similar to my own school site.
http://www.aliso12.org/index.htm
This next website is Martha McIntyre's 5th grade website. She keeps her page simple and effective for the students and their families.
http://iearn.org/
The iearn website is useful and easy to use for Global Learning for an elementary classroom.
BAD/Fluff
http://www.manythings.org/miranda/
This is an example of a learning website that has little educational value and is barely fun. I find bad websites along the www highway. I do not like www.gaggle.net because of the way it is set up with so many ads to pay for a free email for students. The webpage is visually busy and the font is small and boring.
I also do not like clip art that moves in a distracting manner or color schemes that are pastel and "gift like".
I agree that your webpage tells viewers in a "blink" what you are all about.

Martha McIntyre
http://www.aliso12.org/index.htm

Julia McGregor
http://bwroom109.net/

Refdesk
www.refdesk.com

There is a wealth of teacher inservice,current news and educational ideas in the three websites I have chosen to write about. They are each different but very generous in how each offers practical educational ideas to educators. I do not have to invent the technology wheel when I visit these sites.
The websites are well designed and simple to use when locating information. "I do not have to think", when I visit but only use.

Stinker
www.gaggle.net

I do not find much joy in this website for safe, student email. It is boring and clunky in its navigation.The font choice is a small 10pts.It's hard on the eyes while looking for your mail. Also there is the barrage of ads to offset the free use for the students. There is so much extra graphics for the eyes to wade through in order to find your intended task. I'd welcome something else or next year ask the students to subscribe for $3.00 a school year.

http://www.angelfire.com/la/kinderthemes/

This is a kindergarten teacher’s web site. She titled her web site “Kinderthemes”. The teacher posted links to share her favorite themes. It is light and bright. I liked it a lot.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/5059/

I really liked the organization of this web site. First is an introduction. Next is a place where parents can click and find necessary school supplies. Then the schedule is posted. Overall, it is orderly and easy to look at with a nice beige background.

http://www.proteacher.com/

This web site has everything! There are links to other web sites, areas for questions and answers, lessons. The only drawback was that there was too much information, and there weren’t enough graphics for my personal taste. However, it had a lot of good information.

Finally, here is a web site I found confusing.
http://gardenofpraise.com/educat.htm
All the introductory information was in the middle of the page and I had to scroll down to find the purpose of this web site. The design was confusing but the information included in the page was helpful.

The GOOD:
Barbara Nelsen
http://www.colby.edu/~bknelson/exercises/
Incredible site for her Spanish students that I reference often.

Cameron Crouch
http://foothilltech.org/ccrouch/
My colleague’s page at FTHS: the page is beautiful and informative. The homepage is a Photoshop picture with hot spots in it; I’m getting ideas from this one as far as layout.

Art Department at GHS in Oregon
http://www.gladstone.k12.or.us/GHS/Users/allgoodj/leonardo/index.htm
I thought this page was pretty straightforward and graphically appealing.

the UGLY:
http://www.geocities.com/kbulger/class.html
I’m not even sure what this page is trying to accomplish. The “do NOT rely…on this page” note is a good signal that this page is seldom used.

http://www.redmond.k12.or.us/patrick/renz/
I liked this web site, because it was very appealing to the eye. I like the idea of using a picture and the words to link to the web page. It follows the principles in, Don’t Make Me Think, because it is effortless to navigate from page to page.

http://www.myschoolonline.com/site/0,1876,23847-107973-26-2859,00.html
I liked this web site, because it was user friendly. All the links were located on the left hand side of the web page, which made it easy to navigate. I don’t think I would copy anything from this web page, because I like the idea of using words or pictures to link to a web page.

http://www.fthsonline.com/mgeib/
I liked this web site, because it all the main categories fit on the first web page. I don’t like to scroll down to find out where I need to click. I am going to try to integrate this feature onto my first web page.

http://myschoolonline.com/site/0,1876,45182-172432-48-10636,00.html
I didn’t like this web site, because the music was obnoxious. The links were hard to read, because the background was too dark. I also don’t like scrolling text, which was in two places, at the bottom and on the actual web page.

http://www.angelfire.com/ok/freshenglish/
This website is well-meaning but is frustrating. The index looks good—simple—but once you go to the links the pages lack any kind of formatting. Looks very haphazard and not very well planned out.

http://www.ahistoryteacher.com/

Wow! Dan McDowell looks to be a legend. He has showcased some of his curriculum(he has had some of it published) and he has a Propaganda Ministry Video Project that looks amazing. His index is really pro and his pages are attractive and informative. He has blogs for his students in his classes. He has several wiki projects. Each page has a menu for all of the other pages—something that not everyone does.

http://foothilltech.org/ccrouch/art/art.htm
I, like Josh, am a big fan of my colleague Cameron Crouch. His website is just stunning. It is aesthetically beautiful as well as being informative. He has links to his assignments and links to student work, which I really like because we don’t often get to see what the students are doing in other classes, and he has his kids do some amazing work. The web site shows thought and consideration for its primary purpose—education. I see several things I would like to borrow—his artitstic sense, for instance!

http://myschoolonline.com/site/0,1876,1618-141673-1-37500,00.html

Mrs. J. here has a really comprehensive menu on her website—and all the links are thoroughly done. Each one leads to a page that is current—wow. Graphics are cute and age-appropriate, and there is information for parents and the community as well as students. I would like to have consistently current information on my website as well.

http://www.genegill.com/reseda/teacher.html

I really like how simple the website is, nothing too flashy. Simple.

http://www.redmond.k12.or.us/patrick/renz/

Now I really do not need to say too much about this incredible website. The pictures really help out the navigation.

http://www.ahistoryteacher.com/

I really liked the layout of this website. Not just a regular run of the mill teacher’s website. Although you can tell it was made for high school students.

http://www.myschoolonline.com/site/0,1876,5267-128638-4-14650,00.html

I liked this website the least because it has way too much going on. I had to scroll down to get more information. There was no place for contact information, well if there was I could not find it. I did like the background though. The animation for the title was also difficult to read.